BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 24. Central Asian countries could consider increasing exportsof energy resources to other markets, analyst at Moody’s Camille Chautard told Trend.
Commeting on what role can the region of Central Asia play in the face of the forecast energy crisis, Chautard noted that Central Asia has some O&G and coal reserves with main contributors being Kazakhstan (less than 2% of world total oil reserves and 2.5% of world total coal reserves); Turkmenistan (7% of world total gas reserves).
However, she said, those cannot compensate for Russia (6.2%, 20% and 15% of world total oil / gas / coal reserves, respectively).
Nevertheless, Chautard explained some Central Asian countries such as Kazakhstan are seeking to diversify their export routes to Europe to avoid passing through Russia (CPC route), although this will take time to materialise (alternative routes via Azerbaijan are operational but volumes cannot compensate for the CPC), and could consider increasing their exports to other markets (China).
“Uzbekistan’s domestic gas consumption is increasing rapidly so we expect it to stop exporting in the next few years,” – Chautard concluded